Savannah

How to spell savannah

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce savannah

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does savannah mean?

1. nounA large flat area of tropical or subtropical grassland with few scattered trees.

Savannah in a sentence

• The documentary followed a pride of lions across the African savannah.

• On the savannah the grass grows tall during the rainy season and dries out in the heat.

Where does savannah come from?

Language of origin: Spanish

The word came into English in the middle of the sixteenth century from the Spanish sabana (earlier zavana), which Spanish colonists had picked up from the Taino people of the Caribbean, whose word zabana described a flat, treeless stretch of grassland. Early English writers spelled it many ways, including 'zavana' and 'savana', before the doubled-n form with a final 'h' settled in, partly under the influence of place names and a fashion for ornamental endings. The meaning has stayed remarkably stable: it still names the broad tropical and subtropical grasslands, dotted with scattered trees, found in Africa, South America, and elsewhere. It is one of a small group of everyday English words borrowed from a now largely vanished Caribbean language, alongside 'hammock', 'canoe', and 'hurricane'. The spelling trap is the unexpected double 'n' and the silent final 'h', neither of which the pronunciation gives away.

How the word is built

• savann- (from Taino zabana: a treeless grassy plain)
• -ah (spelling-conventional ending)